In, "Fight Club," director David Fincher tells the story of a self-conscious insomniac who tries to find solace in IKEA catalogs and support groups, although he doesn't actually suffer from the prerequisite diseases. When these stop working for him, he creates his own support group with his, "friend" Tyler in the form of a club where men meet weekly to beat each other senseless. Although this movie is just as violent and action-packed as its title might suggest, "Fight Club," also serves as a critique of modern consumerism, suggesting that freedom from the constraints of a consumerist society can only be achieved by experiencing true emotion.
When the audience is first introduced to the Narrator, he is a slave to consumerist society. This can be seen when he describes his apartment and the diegetic descriptions appear over every piece of furniture, (Prmaggiore and Wallis, Film). He admits that these items define who he is as a person, and he believes that with each new purchase of a new watch or coffee table, he is that much closer to feeling complete. This scene is satirical because at the end of the day, these items are meaningless, hence the emptiness he feels that leads to his insomnia. And yet he is still infatuated with the prospect of buying more, which shows how all this consumption will still leave the consumer feeling empty or never completely satisfied. Later in the movie, when Tyler burns the Narrator's apartment down, the loss of all of his possession represents a moving away from his materialistic ideals. This scene is also satirical because the Narrator devotes years to working so he can afford these items, but in an instant they are gone.
The Narrator begins to view what true emotions looks like when he experiences the pain and grief of the people he meets at the support groups. He meets Chloe, who is dying from cancer, and all she wants before she dies is to feel the intimacy of a sexual relationship with another person.